Man punches officer during arrest

BANGOR, Maine — Cecil Worster, 41, added assault to his long criminal history on Monday after he refused to stop for police and then punched the arresting office while being pulled from his vehicle, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said on Tuesday.

Just after 8 a.m. police got word of an unruly customer at Walgreens on Broadway who had threatened another customer. When Officer Paul Colley arrived, he found Worster sitting in a truck in the parking lot.

Worster refused to roll down the window to speak with police and “basically decided to drive away,” Edwards said.

Colley learned that Worster, who has a criminal history that includes a standoff with police in February in Glenburn, was wanted for violation of his bail conditions and followed him down Broadway in a low-speed chase with his cruiser lights flashing.

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Worster pulled into a bank parking lot, but still refused to roll down his window when approached by Colley and drove away again. Other officers then were called in as backup.

When Worster became caught in traffic on Broadway near John Bapst Memorial High School, he was approached again by Colley and yet again refused to roll down his window.

“The officer did break out the window of the truck … and they got him,” Edwards said. During the scuffle, Worster “did punch Officer Colley in the eye, but he’s fine.”

Worster was charged with felony assault on a police officer, failing to stop for a law enforcement officer and violating bail. He was taken to Penobscot County Jail, and was released on $750 cash bail on Tuesday, a jail official said.

Members of a Maine State Police tactical team had arrested Worster on Feb. 20 after he barricaded himself in a Glenburn house after a fight with his girlfriend.

State police troopers and deputies from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department converged on the Simpson Lane home after a 911 hang-up call about 2 a.m. The woman, who ran from the house barefoot when police arrived, had bruises on her neck.

Worster was arrested at about 10 that morning and charged with obstructing the report of a crime and for an outstanding domestic violence warrant issued from 3rd District Court in Bangor.

Worster also was arrested in 1994 for criminal threatening with a firearm and assault, and was sentenced to a nine-month jail sentence for that crime with all but five days suspended, according to court reports printed in the Bangor Daily News. He also was given one year of probation for that crime.